Method and apparatus for determining combining weights for MIMO receivers

According to a method and apparatus taught herein, the computation of intermediate combining weights considers impairment correlations common to two received signal streams, but does not account for cross-stream interference attributable to channel reuse between the two streams. Excluding consideration of channel reuse cross-stream interference from the computation of intermediate combining weights simplifies intermediate combining weight computation and increases computational robustness. Further, final combining weights, such as for Generalized Rake combining or equalization combining, may be obtained efficiently from the intermediate combining weights through the use of weight scaling factors, which do account for channel reuse cross-stream interference. Moreover, in at least some instances, the intermediate combining weights are of interest. For example, signal quality estimates for one or both streams may be computed from the corresponding intermediate combining weights.